Truckie unaware of drug scheme

A truckie charged in connection to an alleged plot to fly 400kg of cocaine into Queensland has been found not guilty.

The Crown alleged that in July 2020, Osman El-Houli, 35, was paid to drive a truck from Melbourne to Mareeba, on the Atherton Tablelands, to meet a plane coming from Papua New Guinea with 400kg of cocaine on board and to take it back to Melbourne.

The Crown alleged the drug plane, carrying $141m of cocaine, was organised by Melbourne mafia and a Colombian crime syndicate.

Osman ElHouli But Brisbane’s Supreme Court, where Mr ElHouli has been on trial this week, heard the Cessna 402C never arrived. Instead the plane crashed on takeoff near a remote PNG airstrip on July 26, 2020.

That same day, Mr El-Houli was arrested on the Kennedy Highway, between Mareeba and Atherton, by heavily armed police while sitting in a truck that was carrying pallets of plasterboard which had holes cut inside them.

At the time Mr El-Houli, who has no criminal history and pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess commercial quantities of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs, told police “he didn’t know he was collecting drugs”.

Mr El-Houli told police he had been hired by someone called “The Professor” to drop off plasterboard in Queensland and the job later changed to picking up bags of cash.

The Crown conceded Mr ElHouli was not aware the plasterboard had cavities cut into it for concealment when he left Melbourne and did not know any of the alleged main players in the syndicate.

In his closing address to the jury, barrister Tony Kimmins relied heavily on character witnesses who swore to the good character of his client.

After about fours hours of deliberation the jury found Mr El-Houli not guilty. Mr ElHouli said his faith had helped him get through the trial.